Firecracker prank causes panic, evacuation at Duncanville High School

DUNCANVILLE, Texas - A prank at Duncanville High School triggered a large police response on Tuesday afternoon.

A student set off firecrackers in the school about 2 p.m. Tuesday and the fire alarms were pulled, leading some to wrongly believe there was an active shooter on the campus.

“All I saw was the firecracker get thrown lit up and I didn’t really react to it, because you know it’s a firecracker, but everybody started running,” said student Hector Rango.

The firecrackers and fire alarm caused students and staff to evacuate the building.

Officials said administrators were quickly able to figure out a prank had occurred in a hallway and students came back inside and returned to classrooms.

“This incident prompted safety protocols to go into place and disrupted the learning environment at Duncanville High School. Understandably, it also caused fear for our students, family, our employees and entire community,” a district spokesperson said in a statement.

Some parents showed up as students were texting with them during the chaos. School was released at its regular time of 3 p.m., but some students were clearly still shaken by what had happened.

“But you can’t be doing that man, like in the world we live in today, you know what I mean,” said student Dylan Coronado.

The students who were involved in the prank were ID’d by Duncanville school officials and will be disciplined.